We Have Regulators Too, Bermuda's Insurers Say

The life and annuity insurers and reinsurers of Bermuda want the world to know something: Bermuda has insurance regulators, too.

The companies’ trade group, Bermuda International Long Term Insurers and Reinsurers, has posted a paper that makes the case for why Bermuda is a sophisticated, attractive insurance regulatory jurisdiction, not primarily a place where U.S. life and annuity send business to cut capital needs and lower income taxes.

What it means: Trade group members want insurers and clients to know that life and annuity products with ties to Bermuda-based companies are subject to careful regulation by the Bermuda Monetary Authority, the country’s financial services regulatory agency.

The history: Bermuda has been a reinsurance center for decades, and it has become a major center for life and annuity reinsurance in the past two decades.

Even traditional U.S.-based insurers have been establishing subsidiaries and “sidecars” in Bermuda.

Some have suggested that the main appeal is that Bermuda is more flexible about how it scores the riskiness of various types of investments than U.S. insurance regulators tend to be.